No. 3395

Pistachio Lozenges

Losanges aux Pistaches

Have two pastes ready; one made of almonds and the other of pistachio nuts, proceeding as explained herewith: Pound one pound of almonds with eighteen ounces of sugar and four or five egg-whites, obtaining a rather stiff paste; roll this out with the rolling-pin to a quarter of an inch in thickness. Besides this pound fourteen ounces of pistachio nuts with one pound of sugar and two ounces of chopped candied orange peel, using sufficient egg-whites to make a fine paste of the same consistency as a macaroon paste. Spread the pistachio layer on top of the almond one, slip it on a paper-covered baking sheet and push into a moderate oven to cook. As soon as the cake is done remove it from the fire and leave to cool partly, then spread over a coating of royal icing (No. 101), dredging the top with shredded pistachios. Cut at once into lozenges two inches long; range the cakes, one beside the other, on a baking sheet covered with paper and lay them for a few moments in the oven to dry the icing.

← No. 3394 Italian Coffee Meringues—Small Fancy Cakes — Petits Fours No. 3396 Pistachio Tourons →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two marzipan-type pastes baked as a single sheet, iced, and cut warm. Nothing here is difficult, but the cutting has to happen at the right moment or the sheet cracks and the icing shatters.

Cut while it is still warmThe instruction to cut "at once" is the hinge. Once the almond layer cools fully it turns firm and the royal icing sets brittle, so the knife crushes the edges instead of slicing. Score and cut as soon as the icing is spread, with a long thin blade wiped between cuts.
Moderate ovenProbably somewhere around 325-350F, though the book gives no temperatures. These sheets are shallow and sugar-heavy; they want to set and dry rather than brown, so watch them and pull them when the surface is just firm and barely coloured. The second trip into the oven, to dry the icing, needs only a few minutes at the same heat or lower.
Weights, convertedOne pound of almonds with eighteen ounces of sugar; fourteen ounces of pistachios with one pound of sugar and two ounces of candied orange peel. Modern almond flour and finely ground pistachios stand in for the mortar work, though pounding does release more oil and gives a denser paste.
Egg whites are deliberately vague"Four or five egg-whites" and "sufficient egg-whites" amount to the same instruction: add them a little at a time until the paste holds together and rolls without cracking. Start low and work up.
Royal icing (No. 101)The cross-referenced icing is the standard sugar-and-raw-egg-white glaze. Because it is only briefly dried in the oven rather than cooked, use pasteurized whites or meringue powder if you are serving anyone who should avoid raw egg.
Pistachio colourBlanch and skin the pistachios in boiling water and rub off the purple skins if you want the green layer to read green; unskinned nuts give a muddy brown-olive. Salted roasted pistachios will throw the sweetness off badly.
AssemblyRoll the almond paste to a quarter inch between sheets of parchment, then spread the softer pistachio paste over it in an even layer of similar thickness. Chilling the almond sheet for twenty minutes makes it much easier to slide onto the baking sheet without stretching.
YieldThe original gives none. Nearly two pounds of nuts and over two pounds of sugar make a large sheet; since the recipe fixes only the two-inch length and not the width, the count cannot be pinned down beyond "several dozen".

A Little History

Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) catalogued the repertoire he cooked at Delmonico's in New York, and its petits fours chapter is essentially a French confiseur's stock list transplanted whole. "Losange" is simply the diamond shape: a sheet of paste, iced and cut on the bias, was an economical way to turn out uniform small cakes. Layered almond-and-pistachio confections of this kind descend from the long European tradition of marzipan work, in which ground nuts and sugar were the pastry cook's structural material rather than flour; pistachios, imported and costly, were valued as much for their green colour as their flavour.